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A marine deck fill is a sealable port, typically mounted into the deck or hull of a marine vessel, that functions to accommodate access to fill the marine vessel's fuel or water tanks, and to seal the access when the filling function is complete. Typically, a marine deck fill may comprise a port and a lid. The port may be installed into a deck or hull. The lid may be removed from the port to perform the filling function, may be reinstalled into the port to seal the port when the filling function is complete. The lid may have a feature to accommodate removal and re-installation of the lid. Typically, the feature may be a slot, a pair of holes, or a socket receiver.
A marine deck fill lid is removed and re-installed with the use of a tool called a marine deck fill lid key, which may be designed to interface with a slot or a hole pair, depending upon which type of marine deck fill the key is designed for. The key may be used in a wrench-like manner to rotate the lid for removal and re-installation. Where the marine deck fill lid incorporates a socket receiver, a winch handle may be used to remove the marine deck fill lid.
In addition to being designed with various removal and re-installation features (holes, slots, or socket receivers), marine deck fills may be designed in a variety of sizes. For example, the diameters of the hole pairs and the dimension between hole pairs vary from design to design. Typical, a conventional deck lid key is designed for use with a particular deck lid configuration. The specialized design of these conventional deck lid keys constitutes a limitation of the usefulness of the conventional deck lid keys in that a different specialized key must be used to remove or re-install the lid of each marine deck fill.
Attempts have been made to design an adjustable deck fill lid key. Each suffers from one or more of the following limitations: lack of structural integrity, pinch hazards, incompatibility with all deck fill lid designs, and ergonomic deficiencies.
What is needed is a sturdy, adjustable deck fill lid key that is designed to interface with a variety of deck fill lid designs and sizes, including slotted, two-hole, and socket receiver designs, that eliminates pinch hazards, and that provides an ergonomically-correct grip.